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Research paper example essay prompt: Race Issues - 1794 words

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Race Issues Race and class are increasingly
important in the world today; yet, few sources
focus on the similarities of these issues at a
regional or global level. Ideologies of race were
used to justify colonialism, conquest and
annihilation of non-European peoples, slavery,
indentured labor, fascism and Nazism. Yet, a
common impression among men and women of color is
that race and class issues are unique to their own
particular community. Still, it is only through
awareness of how these issues affect different
communities that a common bond and understanding
can be developed across racial, ethnic, cultural
and class barriers. Both governments and media
present the image of an integrated, egalitarian
society, which in reality contradicts racial
discrimination, and class oppression that is
exercised against various minority groups.

In each
`integrated' and `equal' society, racial and
ethnic discrimination is directly related to
economic and class issues. Since the period of
merchant bankers and the British east India
Company, modern capitalist forces have penetrated
`developed' and `developing' societies by division
and conquest. Capitalist countries and companies
pursue profit motives by providing arms, money,
patronage and privilege to leaders of some groups,
on the one hand, while denying the vast majority
of their land and resources, on the other. Each
year new reports are published concerning
individuals and their levels of income. If one was
to look at a list of people ranked solely by
yearly earnings in the entertainment industry, the
list would surely be topped with such names as
Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jackson, as well as
such sports figures as Magic Johnson and Michael
Jordan.

On the other hand, if one were to consult
Forbes magazine's list of the 600 highest
compensated CEOs and chairmen, one would find very
few black Americans represented. The Forbes list
goes a few steps further and not only supplies
information about yearly earnings, but goes into
detail regarding individuals assets and their
command over monetary resources. African Americans
are very well represented in the first list, which
generates an optimistic view of how black
Americans have progressed economically in the
United States. Conversely, the near absence of
blacks on the Forbes list paints a much more
pessimistic outlook. Economists argue that racial
differences in wealth are a consequence of
disparate class and human capital credentials such
as age, education, experience and skills, as well
as one's propensity to save and consume.

Sociology
of wealth seeks to properly situate the social
context in which wealth generation occurs. It
attempts to account for the racial differences in
wealth holdings by demonstrating the diverse
social circumstances that blacks and whites face.
Both race and class tremendously affect the
different investment opportunities that are
available to whites and blacks, resulting in a
wealth gap. Certain individuals have commented on
the impact of race and class in the United States
and the public policy implications. The
individuals chosen for this analysis are Quincey
Jones and Kathleen Cleaver. Quincey Jones is an
award winning composer, arranger and publisher.

He
derives his viewpoints from first hand experience
as a result of his childhood and his involvement
in the music industry. Kathleen Cleaver is a
visiting professor at Cardoza School of Law. She
derives her knowledge from her involvement with
the Black Panther Party. These two individuals
discuss issues relating to race and class and its
impact on society and public interest. Jones
describes his familiarity with the gangster
culture from his childhood in Chicago that he
described as, a breeding ground for gangsters of
all colors.

The gang culture itself has not
changed merely the underlying elements. These
underlying elements being money, fast money that
is usually earned by dealing so-called designer
drugs. Jones feels that drugs should be legalized
because in his opinion no matter what the economic
level, drug abuse still exists and the government
is still enabling it. The media, (the news,
movies, MTV raps, etc.) attempt to glorify the
mere 2 or 3 percent of the population that are
considered gangsters and they make it the norm,
which only feeds racism. Jones uses a Dickens
clich to describe the sixties and today, It was
the best of times, it was the worst of times, but
goes on to say how he recalls the sixties not
being that great.

He describes the atrocities that
he experienced as a black performer in the
entertainment business in the fifties and sixties.
One instance involving Charlie Parker, an addict
and how he would be bribed into signing over
publishing, composer and performance royalties, to
get high. Jones realized himself that the only
real way for him to be in the music business was
to own a piece of his masters, negatives and
copyrights. Jones feels that racism is a thinly
veiled disguise over economics and money. What it
comes down to is the job security and threats
pertaining to it at all economic levels. This has
happened throughout history, the people that are
making a lot of money keep the people not making a
lot of money fighting with each other.

The
underlying problem is the crisis of leadership in
our country for both the black and white
communities. Everyone is hustling and stealing and
scheming and at the same time setting a confused
example for our youth. Jones feels that he
succeeded in life despite poverty and extreme
adversity because of his music. Whenever he
experienced any negative emotions he would
transform them into positive musical energy. In
his own words, Recycle that energy and guide it
that way and put it in what ever it is, a record
or movie, a tune arrangement, whatever.He feels
optimistic about the future of the black culture
as long as the ignorance is squelched by an open
mind.

Kathleen Cleaver was a member of the Black
Panther Party as a result of her association with
the Student Non - Violent Coordinating Committee.
The Black Power Movement challenged all the
preconceived notions of blacks not being able to
determine their own destiny. The Party took a
position of self- determination and articulated it
in a local community. It had a program and a
platform and an implementation through the
statement of how blacks should exercise community
control over education, housing, business, and the
military. The Black Panther Party' s base was
focused on young, out of work poor children. If
the party had succeeded they would have been part
of an international revolutionary movement that
would have restricted the education system, taken
the United States out of the role of world
policeman and made it the American people' s
United States.

The corporations of America had the
resources and the power to use the government's
resources to advance their agendas, which was
exactly what the Party was opposed to. They had
plenty of money to silence the Black Panthers
because they had commitment and the glorious
belief that the spirit of the people was greater
than man' s technology. Cleaver felt that the
Panthers were right, and as a result of their
beliefs not being consistent with the American
people they were forced to disband. She feels that
one of the reasons we have the largest black
middle and under class in history is because of
the takeover of legal and political structures by
corporate interests. Information services are
supposedly for the people but are now at the
service of corporate interests.

The educational
system is supposed to be controlled by the
community, although on the surface some may say
that it does just the opposite. A radical gap in
income and residence has occurred through
suburbanization, in other words a, donut shaped
affect. In the middle is a little black hole and
on the outside resides all the wealth, the tax
money and the resources, where the white people
live. Opportunities no longer exist for the people
at the bottom, opportunities only exist for the
people with graduate degrees and only certain
people can get them. Cleaver feels that capitalist
democracy or as she calls it commercial democracy,
needs a middle class that functions smoothly.

A
system such as this needs a certain number of
people at the elite level, a certain number in the
middle and the rest of the people scrambling to
get there. We live in a society that is built upon
financial incentives so when the Black Panthers
differed from the norm and touted, Power for the
People, people in high places got nervous. Next,
the interviewer raises the question of the black
middle class and what we can expect from the 27
million black Americans. Cleaver feels that we
should not worry about the black middle class.
What we should be worried about is our fundamental
system. If we had a system that valued human
rights and resources, people would come first and
property second and all oppressed would benefit.
In essence black people are going to suffer or
enjoy the benefits or demerits of society, they
are merely more vulnerable.

So if there are
benefits, they get the least and if there is harm
they get the biggest share. In Cleaver' s opinion,
the problem with black leadership is that they do
not remain within the black community, but become
involved in the larger society and ignite a class
conflict instead of class progress. This type of
action leads to the collapse of many communities,
and consequently deviant behavior. These
communities must be rebuilt and invested in
heavily by the government and or corporate
America. The problem is lack of political power to
make this happen with the help of the government
and lack of interest to get any aid from
corporations.

Ultimately, Cleaver feels that
blacks need to realize what there survival skills
are and expand on them. To conclude, race and
class issues will forever be a part of our society
until our fundamentals as a society shift from a
monetary to a human base. This transition is not
likely to happen on a larger scale, but smaller
movements are conceivable. Neither of the
individuals interviewed spoke much about public
policy, only Cleaver briefly about the Poor
People' s Campaign. Here in lies the problem,
revolutionaries and individuals of that sort have
good intentions but never produce any results.
Cleaver was a member of the Black Panther Group,
an extremely controversial group of the sixties,
yet they were squelched because they had no
religious affiliation.

Quincey Jones, on the other
hand, is a survivor. He was raised in extreme
poverty and encountered endless adversity in his
life, yet he rose above the problem and is now
very successful. Overall, your life is what you
make of it, if you as an individual become
consumed in why you cannot succeed because of your
ethnicity or social class, you never will.
Political Issues.